Machado homers again, O's beat Royals

Baltimore 9 games above .500

Published 4:58 PM EDT Aug 12, 2012

BALTIMORE -

Manny Machado hit his third homer in four major league games, Nick Markakis also connected, and the Baltimore Orioles got four hitless innings from their bullpen in a 5-3 victory over the Kansas City Royals on Sunday.

Mark Reynolds drove in the tiebreaking run in the sixth inning for the Orioles, who earned a split of the four-game series.

Machado hit a two-run homer in the second off former Orioles pitcher Bruce Chen (8-10). Machado tripled in his debut Thursday night, homered twice in his second game and doubled in a run Saturday night.

With his home run Sunday, the 20-year-old Machado joined Frank Robinson, Ray Knight and Lee May as the only players to get an extra-base hit in each of their first four games with the Orioles.

Mike Moustakas homered for the Royals, who went 4-3 on a road swing against the White Sox and Orioles. Kansas City has 15 home runs over its last eight games.Baltimore went up 4-3 in the sixth. After Chen issued two straight walks, Reynolds greeted Louis Coleman with an RBI single to left. The Orioles added an unearned run in the eighth.

Luis Ayala (4-3) worked the sixth, and Troy Patton and Pedro Strop each got three outs before Jim Johnson finished for his 34th save in 37 opportunities.

Orioles starter Tommy Hunter gave up three runs and eight hits in five innings. The right-hander has yielded at least one home run in 10 straight starts, and the two walks were Hunter's most in a game since April 24.

After stranding runners at the corners in the first inning, the Orioles took a 2-0 lead in the second. Reynolds led off with a walk before Machado hit a drive to center that umpires initially ruled bounced off the top of the wall. After a quick replay review, Machado broke into his home-run trot from second base.

Moustakas ended an 0-for-10 drought with a liner off the foul pole in right field leading off the fourth, and Brayan Pena added a sacrifice fly to tie it at 2.

The Royals got a run in the fifth when Alex Gordon and Alcides Escobar singled ahead of a double-play grounder by Moustakas. In the bottom half, Markakis knotted the score at 3 and ended Chen's run of 11 straight outs with a drive to right on a 3-2 pitch.

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